Tag: healthy muffin recipe

Are you rushed in the morning? I know I am! Time seems to fly as my husband John and I get ready to go out the door each day. However, no matter how time flies in those early morning hours, I would like to have something healthy as well as filling (and quick) for us to eat.

I discovered a great recipe for chocolate and peanut butter muffins you can cook in the microwave that are not only quick but good… and good for you too!

It all began when I found a recipe for gluten free and sugar free chocolate muffins at Simply Healthy Home. Jessica’s muffins were single muffins baked in the oven, but knowing how to make microwave muffins already, I figured I could cook the muffin in the microwave so they would be quick and easy. (I was right. They cooked in the microwave just fine.)

Furthermore, one of the main ingredients in Jessica’s muffin recipe was ground flax. I liked that, especially with chocolate which would overcome any other taste sensations from the flax seed which some people might not like so much.

Ground flax is really heart healthy and so nutritious. Plus it is an ingredient you would normally see in low carb muffin recipes or grain free muffins. Ground flax and chocolate seemed like a good combination of health and happiness!

By the way, even Walmart now has organic ground flax seeds from the Wild Oats company, so if eating clean is important to you and you want to still save money on groceries, check the prices there on this newer organic line of food at Walmart! I tried their organic flax in my minute muffins, and it works quite well!

I did change one ingredient from Jessica’s recipe to add to the health benefits of the muffins.

The original recipe called for cocoa powder, and I used raw cacao powder. You can see what a package of raw cacao powder looks like here:

Getting ready to make my sugar free chocolate muffin in a minute using raw cacao and ground flax seed. Don’t you just love my mug to make my muffin in?

While you could still use regular cocoa powder in this recipe, the benefits of using raw cacao powder vs. cocoa powder might make you lean towards using the superfood raw cacao.

That said, I should also warn you that when you use raw cacao powder, or even just cocoa powder, you will probably find yourself wanting a little extra sweetener to offset the bitterness of the chocolate. I used a little more than 1/16 of a teaspoon of white stevia powder which is actually quite a bit of stevia. If I were using coconut palm sugar in this recipe, which I believe would be quite good with this recipe using raw cacao powder actually, I would probably use a teaspoon or so. A teaspoon or so of honey or maple syrup would work well too.

Fortunately, the recipe also calls for pure vanilla extract too which makes any recipe you add it to taste a little sweeter as well. Had it not been for that vanilla extract, I might have felt the urge to throw more sweetener in my mug! LOL Thankfully though, the vanilla saved me from having to do that.

What you end up with is a perfect little chocolate muffin that is healthy and tasty in about two to five minutes flat (including the 50 seconds of cooking in the microwave).

Not bad!

On a side note:

You don’t need a spread with this muffin, but you can certainly enjoy one if you wish.

For the sake of experimentation, I cut my muffin in three sections and topped one piece with peanut butter, one piece with coconut butter, and one piece with a mixture of 1/2 butter with 1/2 pure maple syrup.

Here’s a photo of my three slices of muffins topped with maple butter, peanut butter, and coconut butter (sometimes called coconut manna):

Maple Butter, Peanut Butter, or Coconut Butter – Which would YOU choose?

I liked all three spreads!

If you would like my thoughts for future reference:

I liked the coconut butter spread for breakfast, especially if I were serving this muffin with a fruit protein shake recipe on the side (which is what I was doing on that day).

I thought the peanut butter on the chocolate muffin would make a terrific afternoon snack.

The maple butter spread on the chocolate muffin was the sweetest. It almost tasted like a chocolate cake with maple icing! That…. well… that made me think I could even use this recipe as a quick and easy dessert for a lunch or dinner.

Of course, you could use any of of the muffin spreads for your breakfast if you wish! They ALL make for healthy breakfasts or healthy snacks, even healthy snacks for kids!

Just take a close look at my quick and easy healthy muffins with ground flax and raw cacao powder (and toppings of course), otherwise known as my chocolate and peanut butter muffins!

Healthy Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins From a Microwave

So if you are looking for a healthy muffin recipe for your morning pleasure (and health), here you go!

Quick and Easy Chocolate and Peanut Butter Muffin Recipe

2014-12-01 17:02:06

Serves 1

A healthy muffin recipe made with ground flax, cacao powder, and peanut butter - No grain and sugar free!

Remove from microwave, and immediately turn over mug over a plate to remove muffin.

You are now ready to go, with or without anything on top!

Notes

Stevia is a great sweetener for this recipe, but if you prefer, you could also use approximately 1 tsp. (or a little more) of raw honey, pure maple syrup, coconut palm sugar, natural pure cane sugar, or other sweetener of choice.

While you do not need to slice the muffin, they can be easily sliced into three rounded pieces for easier handling in the car or by little hands at the table.

The recipe actually called for sifted “flour” which I would assume meant white all-purpose flour. However, since I am trying to use more whole ingredients these days, I figured a muffin recipe might be a good recipe to substitute white flour with white whole wheat flour.

Before I go on, let me share that the above substitution in this particular recipe worked quite well on a 1 to 1 ratio.

Baked good recipes with white whole wheat flour are going to have the same nutrition and fiber as those baked with regular whole wheat. The difference in the flour is the color of the wheat in its natural form White whole wheat flour comes from the bran of white wheat instead of the bran from brown wheat! There IS white wheat in this world. It’s just that you haven’t seen that wheat used so much in recent history.

Here’s the big deal though, I think… The lighter color of white whole wheat flour is a psychological factor which I believe helps us to categorize the goodies baked with the white whole wheat as fluffy and moist, kind of like what most people have come to expect from muffins, cakes, and breads baked with the white all purpose flour.

There is a big difference though. With white whole wheat flour, you have the health benefits of whole wheat in your baked item along with the expected texture of the best homemade baked goods you family has been used to enjoying.

Note: Not all flour substitutions will work on a 1: 1 ratio including white to white whole wheat. This time, it did.

The other reason I believe these muffins were so succulent was the addition of green apples in the recipe.

Let me explain what happened. It was actually just a lucky break there.

My grandson Liam and I worked on these breakfast muffins together this morning. He wanted to help me bake something, and since I love baking with kids, and we hadn’t eaten yet, I jumped at the chance to work with him on this cooking project.

It also so happened I had earlier pulled an old Mennonite recipe book of mine out of my cookbook cabinet and had it sitting right in plain site. (Talk about great old cookbooks and good timing!)

Here is the book that I used: the “More With Less Cookbook”.

More With Less Cookbook – A Classic Mennonite Cookbook

I flipped through the pages and quickly found some muffin recipes.

The muffin recipe that caught my eye was the “Cinnamon Topped Oatmeal Muffins”.

Did I have the ingredients? Yes. Check.

Uh oh… I ALMOST had all the ingredients. I only had half as many raisins as the recipe called for!

Fortunately Liam was there playing with an apple which had come from a bag of Granny Smith apples his mom had purchased for baked apples on Thanksgiving Day. What confirmed my initial thoughts and made my decision to try some apples in the recipe was Liam saying “Grandma, let’s put some apples into our muffins!”

I looked at Liam and said “Liam, I believe you have a good idea there. It seems to me like apples and raisins go well together. Let’s put some apples into our muffins!”

Liam said “Ah hum!”

And that’s the story behind adding the apples into our batter and making some very sweet whole wheat muffins that were soft, sweet, and delicious!

Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention. Sometimes those inventions turn out some pretty fantastic end products!

Liam and I did add some additional spices that were not in the original Mennonite muffin recipe – not because I was thinking it would be a good idea but because Liam already had picked up the nearest spice bottle and was holding it in expectation.

Fortunately, he was holding ground cloves.

“OK, I said. I think ground cloves would go well with apples and raisins, but if we add that, let’s throw some nutmeg and cinnamon into the batter too… just because Grandma thinks nutmeg and cinnamon seem to go well with ground cloves.”

“Ah huh!” Liam happily agreed!

So we added some ground cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon to the batter… just a tad… and I don’t think the Mennonite cooks of the world will mind one bit!

The muffin crumb topping already had some cinnamon. I wondered if I may have overdone it by adding a little cinnamon in the batter. I’m thankful now I can say the little bit of extra cinnamon in the batter went quite well with the cinnamon crumb topping!

All in all, it took a little bit of ingenuity and an attitude of experimentation (which is sometimes necessary when cooking with kids), but we came up with a mouthwatering yet healthy muffin recipe that any whole foods advocate… or Mennonite baker… would approve!

And here is the recipe for whole wheat apple muffins with oatmeal, cinnamon and raisins

White Whole Wheat Apple Muffins with Oatmeal, Cinnamon and Raisins

2014-11-29 13:14:50

Serves 12

A mouthwatering whole foods muffin recipe made with white whole wheat flour and sweetened with natural pure cane sugar, apples, and raisins. A sweet delight for any morning breakfast or afternoon snack with no spread needed!

Add the butter (melted), egg, and milk, and stir those wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and fruits just until all the ingredients are well combined (but no more than that).

Divide muffin batter equally into the 12 greased muffin cups.

Sprinkle cinnamon crumb topping onto the tops of each one before baking.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

Notes

Sometimes muffins can be removed from a muffin pan almost immediately, but usually it is best to let them set a couple of minutes before you try to take them out.

By Chris Stevens

Adapted from More-With-Less-Cookbook

beta

calories

203

fat

7g

protein

5g

carbs

31g

more

Adapted from More-With-Less-Cookbook

THE NEW AMERICAN HOME http://padoozles.com/

Liam, I think we did a fine job baking together this morning! Our muffin recipe was fun to make and so healthy. The additional spices were just perfect. Thanks for the suggestion, Liam! We also had a great time eating those muffins too, didn’t we?

What more could a person ask for on an otherwise quiet, laid back Saturday morning than moist and delicious whole wheat apple raisin cinnamon muffins and someone special to share them with?

Chris Stevens

Hi! I'm Chris Stevens! If I had to “define who I am”, I would call myself an insightful wife, tested mom, upbeat grandma, and savvy CEO at home. In other words, I'm a #hero... at least to those under 5 years of age. :-) Please click the photo to read my bio!

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